Worthwhile Dawn
by HecateA
Summary: It isn't every day that Angelina's girlfriends wake her up at the crack of dawn, but it is every day that they find a new way to fill her life with more love and maybe even a miracle. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I own what? Nothing.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment 8, Performing Arts #3 Write a Disability!AU

**Warnings: **Hints at serious accident.

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**Worthwhile Dawn **

The last time Angelina had been up at dawn was the day before the Battle of Hogwarts. It seemed stupid, the world had been falling apart after all, but the Appleby Arrows had had a practise. Voldemort had been trying to tear the world to shreds, but they were still throwing balls and flying around and trying to keep some sense of normalcy around in the world. And so she'd put on her usual sweater, buttoned up her comfy well-worn and washed out training robes, laced up her boots, and taken off—thinking nothing of it.

Now, nobody really woke up Angelina. She usually didn't have any places where she absolutely _had _to be; things were still pretty quiet in the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts. Any appointment with the Healers were usually later in the day, and… well, that had been Angelina's life for the last few months. Her full-time job was to figure out how to be a person again; everyone promised that she'd build from there eventually, and Angelina believed them. But for now, there was more sleeping in than she'd ever known.

So when Angelina was woken up at dawn, even if it was by Katie sweetly whispering in her ear and kissing her ear, she was confused.

"What?" Angelina muttered.

"Wake up, sweetie," Alicia said. "Rise and shine…"

"The sun's not shining," Angelina mumbled. The blinds were drawn—Katie always drew the curtains as soon as she woke up, it was a habit they'd all learned to live with long ago.

"That's okay," Katie said. "That's how we planned it."

"We didn't plan anything," Angelina said quietly. Today was do-nothing day—Alicia had the day off from her apprenticeship at Fabiszak's Flying Supplies Furnishing and Katie wasn't teaching at the day school in Edinburgh where she taught flying. Today was going to be a day of laying in bed and listening to the radio and eating pizza and drinking beer—that had been decided ages ago. She tried to burrow further into the blankets.

"_You _didn't plan anything," Alicia said. "Katie Kate and I, however, have been busy. Now come on; rise and shine."

"Alright," Angelina said. "I'm up, I'm up…"

It was a lie at first, but she did get curious and suspicious when she noticed that both of her girlfriends were up and dressed as if they were about to go out for a jog. What really got Angelina curious was that they were wearing their hair in the same double Dutch braids.

"You're matching," she said as she pulled on the clothes that Katie was bringing her.

"Yeah," Alicia said matter-of-factly.

"Should've warned me before I had my last hair appointment," Angelina said. She smiled to herself. It would have been just like the old days, back on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Katie had been sure that matching for matches was lucky, and so Angelina and Alicia had usually let her pick a hairstyle and organize their outfits.

"Don't worry, this will still work," Katie said. She passed Angelina a scrunchy so she could gather up her braids in a ponytail.

"Okay," Alicia said. "I've got coffee ready to go and croissants from last night. Shall we head out?"

"I—umm—where are we going?" Angelina asked.

"Don't you worry about that," Alicia said, kissing the top of Angelina's head. "Do you want a hand?"

"No, I've got it," Angelina said.

Carefully, she eased herself off the bed and into the wheelchair on Ali's side of the bed—Angelina had always been the middle-of-the-bed type, but the chair had to go somewhere and Alicia had less stuff than Katie.

She wheeled herself out of the bedroom, following her two girls out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Katie had a bag packed for her and she hung it off the back of Angelina's chair for her.

"Alright," Ali said. "I'll lead the way."

In the months since the Battle of Hogwarts, they'd moved into a new flat in London—an accessible one that gave Angelina plenty of space to maneuver, had ramps to every door, bars to grab, lever-type door handles, and all kinds of other things she'd never thought of before. The fact that her wand was always within reach made some things easier, like light switches. Plus, they had enlisted Hermione Granger's help to charm and magic the flat into being more livable, but there were some things that there was no getting around.

They took the elevator down to the main floor, obviously without encountering another soul at this hour. Since there was nobody near, they didn't wait long or go much farther before Apparating—to where, Angelina didn't know. It seemed to be a boring old Muggle residential neighbourhood.

"We'll take the long way," Katie said. "It's got a path…"

She followed without raising a fuss and Ali and Katie made very specific efforts to look straight ahead and sip their coffee and avoid eye contact—though Katie was definitely biting back a smile.

"What did you pack for me, Katie?" Angelina asked to break the silence.

"You'll see," Katie said. "Did you want coffee?"

"I want to be a tad less confused," Angelina said.

"We're nearly there—oh, found Weasley…"

Sure enough, they were approaching a regular old football field near a Muggle elementary school. The starkly ginger and very lanky figure of George Weasley was standing in the field waiting for them, next to someone who… Wood, that was Oliver Wood there too.

"What's this?" Angelina asked.

Katie looked giddy.

"Can you cast those charms on your wheels so the chair's fit for all terrains?" Alicia asked Angelina.

"Of course," Angelina said, drawing her wand. When her chair was ready, her girls led her onto the field, to where George and Oliver was standing with…

She had no way of describing the contraption by the two boys other than with that word; "contraption." Something she'd never seen before and that only narrowly made sense. There were two brooms—two Nimbuses that seemed to have aged well, with an extra seat between them. It looked like one of those swiveling chairs on a fishing boat, but with more back support, arms, and two broms framing the bottom like a rocking chair. Leather straps and harnesses dangled from it and connected it to the two other brooms.

"What in the world's Weasley done now?" Angelina said, purposefully tauntingly.

"This wasn't my doing," George said. "Well, I helped. But I was not the brains of this particular operation…"

"And I'm just here as back-up," Oliver piped up.

Angelina looked to Katie and Alicia.

"_Now_ can you explain?" Angelina asked.

"When I teach little ones how to fly, sometimes we give them the children's broomsticks but sometimes they fly in tandem with me," Katie said. "And you're a good flyer, there's nothing I could teach you about that, but…"

"But we know that you haven't flown since the Battle," Alicia cut. "And we know that if it was us we'd be dying a thousand deaths a day, and too much has changed and you've survived too much to lose flying too."

Ali was like that—her words were sharp and to the point but never wrong.

"This…" Angelina felt a little breathless as she put all the pieces together.

She hadn't been able to fly since she'd been hurt—without the ability to move her legs, squeeze her thighs around the broomstick, angle and shift her body to steer and keep her balance midair… well, she'd inquired about this very quickly after waking up. It had been quite clear that while there'd be a lot of things Angelina _could _do, flying would not be one.

"You made me a flying machine?" Angelina said quietly.

"Broomsticks weren't going to work," Ali said, shrugging—as if it was that simple. And while Katie and Alicia definitely looked ecstatic about their surprise, Angelina was struck by just how deeply… well, yes. It _had _been that simple for them. She'd been missing something and they had pulled it out of nowhere for her. So that she'd have it back, so that she'd have a part of herself back, and maybe she'd be able to give part of herself out too…

"I'm getting better," Angelina said, turning to Katie and then to Alicia. "I promise, I… I'll be more myself soon, I…"

Katie sat on Angelina's lap and touched her cheek. "You're incredible. We don't need anything from you other than for you to be—Merlin, Ange, for you to be alive and healthy. That's so important. We don't need things to go back to the way they used to be because things are different now and that's just going to have to be okay. We just thought _you'd _need this."

Angelina bit her lip and nodded.

"It's going to work?" she asked tentatively. "We're—we're going to fly and I'm going to have the wind in my hair and that feeling in my stomach when you take off and the…"

She trailed off. Katie looped her arms around Angelina's neck and kissed her nose.

"We're confident it'll work," Katie said.

Alicia slipped an arm around Angelina from behind and kissed the top of her head.

"Was this worth getting up at dawn for?" she asked quietly.

Angelina could only laugh, but she was cognizant of how fragile her voice sounded. How her excitement bled through…

"Alright, are you all going to dilly-daddle forever?" George eventually asked. "Or are we seeing this thing in action?"

Angelina smiled and turned to Katie. "Did you pack my flying robes in my bag?"

Katie smiled and nodded.

"Then let's go," Angelina smiled.

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**Stacked with: **Hogwarts; Shipping War

**Individual Challenge(s): **Family Game Night; Sapphic Bribery; Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC (x3); 3rd Rule Bribery (HP Edition) (Y); Poly Bribery; Seeds; Old Shoes; Themes and Things A (Love); Themes & Things B (Survival); Themes and Things C (Blanket); Themes & Things D (Sweater/Jumper); The 3rd Rule; Ethinc and Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Flags and Ribbons (Y); Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux (Y)

**Word count: **1599

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_**Shipping War**_

**Ship (Team):** Angelina Johnson/Alicia Spinnet/Katie Bell (Chaser's Delight)

**List (Prompt):** Fall Micro 2 (Flight)


End file.
